To get to beautiful Banff, Alberta, you first have to fly into Calgary International Airport, which may take hours depending on your starting point and the number of layovers. Once on the ground, it’s a 90-minute drive.
That’s where Blues forward Brayden Schenn and wife Kelsey held their COVID-19-delayed wedding celebration last July.
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There was no shortage of guests eager to make the trip, though. The list included teammates Ryan O’Reilly, David Perron, Robert Thomas, Colton Parayko, Justin Faulk, Robert Bortuzzo and Jake Neighbours, along with former teammates Jay Bouwmeester, Jaden Schwartz, Tyler Bozak, Pat Maroon, Carl Gunnarsson, Joel Edmundson and Jake Allen.
The picture of the group posted by the Blues on their social media isn’t uncommon across the NHL, but it still spoke volumes about the respect Schenn’s far-reaching circle of friends have for him.
Brayden Schenn's wedding brought a bunch of #StanleyCup champions (and past, present and future Blues) to Banff this weekend. Word is that Jake Neighbours was the No. 1 star on the dance floor.
Congrats to @Bschenn_10 and Kelsey on the big day! #stlblues pic.twitter.com/BAIIi1RgcC
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) July 10, 2022
“He’s a guy who keeps these bonds long-lasting,” Bortuzzo said. “He’s a true glue guy, and you could see that at the wedding because Banff is a tough place to get to and there was a lot of guys there — old faces and new faces.
“That says a lot about a guy, in my opinion. I’m sure anywhere he’s played, he’s kind of brought that to the locker room, just a character and a personality that you want to be around. He takes a lot of pride in being a good friend and a good teammate.”
Schenn brushed aside the compliment and said he was just thankful everyone could make it.
“It was a good party,” he said. “It’s fun to see guys together, having a few drinks, partying all night and having fun with each other again, because as hockey moves on, people go their separate ways and move on. It’s not every day you get to see those guys you won the (Stanley) Cup with, and party with them. People are busy in the summer, so for people to take time out of their schedule to come celebrate with us, we had a great time.”
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Of course, the newlyweds had some mingling to do outside of their star-studded tables, but Schenn got a good glimpse of what was happening.
“The thing is, I know everyone’s moves and I’ve had enough beers with guys where you see who likes to have fun,” he said. “Jake Neighbours, he was leading the line dance and Ryan O’Reilly likes ‘giving her’ (going faster). There wasn’t one guy that took it easy that night, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.”
With the wedding behind him and training camp now wrapped up, it’s time for Schenn and the Blues to open the regular season, which begins Saturday. And a year after being slowed and kept out of the lineup with a nagging injury, Schenn is looking forward to being himself again, which means not taking it easy on the ice, either.
In the first six games of the 2021-22 season, Schenn had five points (two goals, three assists), laid eight hits and stuck up for one teammate, dropping the gloves with Colorado’s Nazem Kadri in retaliation for Kadri’s high hit on Justin Faulk in the previous playoffs.
In other words, Schenn was off to the kind of start Blues fans have been familiar with since his arrival in a trade with Philadelphia in 2017.
But on Oct. 30, the 31-year-old suffered an injury he’d never experienced in his career: broken ribs. He was skating hard into the zone when he was brought down by Chicago’s Alex DeBrincat and went awkwardly into the boards.
“It’s one of those things where you get tripped up going in full speed on fresh ice,” Schenn said. “(DeBrincat) probably wasn’t going to lay a big hit. His stick just got stuck on my skates — an unfortunate situation.”
Brayden Schenn is headed to the dressing room after colliding with Alex DeBrincat. #stlblues pic.twitter.com/4lkDFSxgkS
— Bally Sports Midwest (@BallySportsMW) October 31, 2021
Schenn returned in that game but got some imaging tests done afterward, which revealed one broken rib. Three days later, he traveled with the Blues on their four-game road trip to Los Angeles, San Jose, Anaheim and Winnipeg. He planned on continuing to play.
But after scoring and logging just more than 18 1/2 minutes against L.A., Schenn left in the first period in San Jose. He couldn’t deal with the pain anymore.
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“You battle it mentally, just grind through it. That’s really all you can do,” Schenn said. “You don’t feel good. You don’t want to get hit. It hurts.”
While the Blues went onto Anaheim, Schenn was sent back to St. Louis for re-imaging, which showed he had a total of five broken ribs. The recovery time is four to six weeks, but it’s a rehab that you can’t speed up.
“It’s not like a foot where it’s in a boot and you can guard it with something,” he said. “With ribs, you’re going to get hit, and you just rebreak them and then you’re just chasing it even more. So you actually have to take the time and get healthy.”
After three weeks of treatment that included sessions in the swimming pool, Schenn returned Nov. 24 in Detroit. But in his first seven games, he had just one point and was minus-6.
“For the first little bit, you’re timid to get in the battle, because you’re still fighting it a little bit,” Schenn said. “You still have to go out there and perform — that’s the bottom line. Are you going to be as physical as when you’re 100 percent healthy? No. But you find ways to be productive in other areas of the game, or at least I tried to do that.”
Then on Dec. 12 against Anaheim, just his 10th game back in the lineup, Schenn left in the third period with an oblique injury that was the result of compensating for the rib injury.
“Just took a faceoff in the third period … compensation right?” Schenn said. “Unfortunate.”
He’d miss the next five games, including the Winter Classic in Minnesota. He wanted to play, but with the frigid conditions, the Blues prioritized precaution and kept him out. But they couldn’t keep him off the bench, where he was seen wearing the No. 41 jersey of Bortuzzo, who missed the game on the COVID-19 protocol list.
“Knowing ‘Schenner’ as long as I have, it’s not surprising (he wanted to play during his injury),” Bortuzzo said. “He’s never been a guy that let on he’s banged up. It just speaks to the kind of guy he is, the leadership. He just cares about the group, and playing under those circumstances, that’s just the ‘ultimate care’ in my opinion.
“Honestly, between Schenner and ‘O’Ry,’ they carry a lot of the load, on ice, off ice, team building. Both have a real feel for what the group needs, and they enjoy building the group closer together. We’re very fortunate to have two guys who can drive our group.”
That's not Robert Bortuzzo! #WinterClassic #stlblues pic.twitter.com/pVSNZZMZNG
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) January 1, 2022
In fact, Schenn could have been a candidate for the Blues’ captaincy in 2020 if the “C” hadn’t gone to O’Reilly. Instead, he got an “A” as an alternate, and O’Reilly is more than thankful for what he brings.
“Oh gosh yeah, he does so many things, especially in this room — a lot of things that no one else sees besides these players,” O’Reilly said. “I wouldn’t know what to do if I didn’t have him. The way he takes care of all of us — not just the younger guys, but all of us. His experience dealing with things like that, it’s awesome to have.”
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But Schenn couldn’t help as much as he would’ve liked last season because he couldn’t stay healthy, and, in part, because he couldn’t catch a break.
He returned on Jan. 5, and in his next six games had eight points (five goals, three assists). But on Jan. 23 in Vancouver, he took a crosscheck to the ribs.
Who was the culprit for the Canucks?
“My brother,” Schenn said, referring to Vancouver defenseman and older brother, Luke Schenn. “It was accidental. It was just a play, first period, left side, kind of up their bench, power play. He tried to get me on the pants, and he got me perfectly — like this much space (Schenn held his fingers close together). There was some cartilage and a rib there, so just unlucky.”
Schenn played through the next three games, but the Blues then had an 11-day break in the schedule, so he got some much-needed time off. When the team returned, it would be his longest and most productive stretch of hockey — 14 goals and 37 points in 34 games, including 11 multi-point games and at least one point in 24 of 34 games.
But then on April 21 in San Jose, with just five games left in the regular season, Schenn’s ribs were re-injured for a third time, by Sharks defenseman Brent Burns.
“If I had to explain that one, it was late in the season for them, and they were frustrated,” Schenn said. “We had a long shift going on them. I didn’t even have the puck. I was just kind of waiting for the puck and (Burns) drove his elbow into the back of my ribs. I didn’t even X-ray that one because you have the same feeling, so you know you’re not well.”
Schenn was a spectator for the last four games before returning for the playoffs. He didn’t score in the team’s 12 postseason games but did have eight assists.
“I can’t imagine how frustrating it was, especially him knowing the group we had and us feeling like this could have been a run,” Bortuzzo said. “Like I said, he would never let it be known that he was playing through that, but we all saw it.”
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Despite playing just 62 games in the regular season, Schenn was one of the Blues’ nine 20-goal scorers, notching 24. He finished with 58 points, tied for the second-most in his five seasons with the club, and he was a plus-21, which was the second-best total on the team among forwards.
“I still think I had a pretty productive season, all things considered,” he said.
Now after 4 1/2 months off, Schenn is feeling good.
“I’m ready to be a big piece to a good team here,” he said. “It’s one of those things where it’s in the rearview mirror, and you don’t think about it. You go out and play and have fun.”
As in the past, there has been some debate about whether the Blues should use Schenn on the wing or at center. They could play him on the left side on a line with O’Reilly and Jordan Kyrou, but Brandon Saad is currently there. Lately, Schenn has been centering Neighbours and Ivan Barbashev.
“I’ve said it before: I cared about (wing versus center) when I was younger because I didn’t play a whole lot of wing,” Schenn said. “I didn’t feel real comfortable there. But now I feel comfortable left wing, right wing, center. Center feels more natural, but I feel comfortable playing the wing. I think it’s a luxury to be versatile and play different positions in different situations, and I just try to be one of those guys.”
There’s no debating Schenn’s versatility and the element of physicality he provides, as well as the willingness to fight. It’s a combination not matched by any other Blues player — or, really, by many other NHLers.
Since he came to the organization in 2017, Schenn is tied with Boston’s Taylor Hall for 53rd in the league in points with 276 points. Schenn has 13 fighting majors in that span, and of those 53 players ahead of him, or tied, in points, only Florida’s Matthew Tkachuk (24th with 334 points) has more fights, with 15, according to HockeyFights. The next on the list after Schenn is Colorado’s Gabriel Landeskog (43rd with 292 points) with eight bouts.
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“Yeah, it’s kind of a compliment I’ve had,” Schenn said. “A hockey player can be a goal scorer, a defensive defenseman, or a player that can do a little bit of everything — whatever the team or coaches want you to do to be part of a winning hockey team. You need different pieces. You need everyone.
“Ultimately the goal is winning the Stanley Cup, and in this locker room, we’re trying to chase that down again. You want that feeling back, and if you can be a guy to bring different elements to the team, whatever they ask, you just try to do that when called upon.”
Even if Schenn dropping the gloves causes his Blues’ teammates to wince at the possibility of losing one of their top players to a broken hand, like when he took umbrage to a hit by Columbus’ Billy Sweezey on Jordan Kyrou in a preseason game Sept. 29.
Schenn throws down the gloves and stands up for Kyrou.
Stream: https://t.co/00WT27hyNq#stlblues pic.twitter.com/UQB9FUlyEM
— Bally Sports Midwest (@BallySportsMW) September 30, 2022
“I’ll be one of the guys wincing,” Bortuzzo said. “Honestly, it’s in you, and it’s hard to turn that off. He doesn’t have to do stuff like that, but it’s something I’m sure he’s built from a young age, and it’s just a part of him. When he sees a guy go down, instincts take over and he steps up. Hopefully guys feel what that means to our group.”
Said Schenn: “I guess I’ve been doing it since I was taught that at an early age, 15, 16, when fighting was a thing. I’m not saying fighting is the only way you can do it, but if you’re willing to show that for a teammate, it goes a long way in the dressing room. You want to show that you have each others’ backs.”
Now that Schenn is seemingly past those nagging rib injuries, he can be that multi-faceted player on a more regular basis.
“Yeah, he was still extremely effective — Brayden does so many things well and good — but when you’re healthy, you don’t have to worry about it,” O’Reilly said. “Last year, you’re sitting beside him and you’re seeing how he’s dealing with that injury, and that’s an extremely tough injury. So it’s nice, you can see him trust himself making great plays. It’s good to see.”
(Top photo: Jeff Curry / USA Today)
